First, magnetic reconnection affects plasma parcels flowing through the reconnection region by (i) accelerating the plasma (increase of the plasma bulk flow velocity) up to the Alfvén speed \(V_{A,in}\)  computed from the inflow plasma parametersIn the symmetric case, the inflow Alfvén speed is \(V_{A,in}=B_r/\sqrt{4\pi m_i n}\) , where \(B_r\)  is the reconnecting magnetic field. While, in the asymmetric case the generalization of this expression is \(V_{A,in}=\sqrt{B_1 B_2/4\pi m_i} (B_1+B_2)/(n_1B_1+n_2B_2)\) , as reported in [1]}. and (ii) heating the plasma (increase of the thermal speed of the particles) by an amount proportional to the inflow magnetic energy \(\Delta T \approx 0.1 m_i V^2_{A,in}\)  [2]}, [3]}, [4]}. All in all, the magnetic field energy of the plasma in the inflow acts as an energy reservoir for the kinetic energy in the outflow.
